I'm gonna go with Eric Gordon. I like the way he shoots the jumper, he's got a good amount of quickness and strength, and he has some defensive ability on the perimeter. I guess he needs to work on his handle a little bit. But I'll be really interested to see how he does playing with Blake Griffin this season.

Great choice. Turner has a beautiful jumper and unreal range. Leaving age aside, I think the 2 Rays from UConn might be better because of how well they use screens. Hamilton has tremendous stamina and timing. I know he's slowing down, but the Hamilton of 2005 would be just about right. Ray Allen is just such a great shooter, it almost trumps everything else. I'd say he's not a complete zero on defense, and he drives to the basket way better than he's given credit for. People only talk about his outside shooting.

I can't think of anybody from the top of the head, but I have always thought Turner could fit a role similar to Paul Pierce, (less strength, but a better playmaker) and a guy like Pierce could fit well with Jrue/Iguodala. Plus, Pierce only shot 34.5 % from 3 coming out of Kansas, so maybe there is hope for ET to become the sort of mold.

1. Kevin Durant (impossible but I dare to dream)
2. Wes Johnson (don't know how he'll pan out but he's a much better fit for this team than Turner)
3. Kevin Martin (great stroke and isn't ball dominant)

I'm not sure usage rate is necessarily a direct measure ball dominant, which I consider to be holding onto the ball a majority of the time as well, not just how often he finishes plays. I also don't think past usage% proves he a player can't be successful off the ball as well, just that in the past he's been used a lot (which could be because of skillset, or because of the situation and he's asked to be).

Ray Allen is a great example. In Milwaukee his USG was in the low 20's, then he went to Seattle and it was near 30, then he went to Boston and it was 20 again. His game didn't change, how he was used did. He was successful at both.

After looking at it a bit more I do agree with you that it's probably not a good direct measure (ray allen was one of my reasons for adjusting my thinking on it, as was Steve Nash). Not really sure how you look at it easily. Is there a way to look up assisted baskets versus unassisted baskets (off the top of my head question)?

I will go with Thad's old teammate, M.Morrow. I think he is the best deep shooter in the league and has size also. He doesn't drive well but to me that is down on my list of necessary requirements of a guy between Jrue and Iggy. W.Johnson would be my backup plan.

Do we know Turner can't shoot from deep? He just chose not to do it at Ohio St. because he was surrounded by shooters.

I agree. The real talent in that trade would be Turner for Favors. I'm in the camp that Turner will be a better overall player than Favors- however, if the other side of that trade is Speights for Morrow- well I'd do that trade in a heartbeat. Put the two together and I think it's a wash in terms of talent- but the fit might be better for us with Favors/Morrow over Turner/Speights. I understand we're not at a make moves for fit place right now- but long term fit is also something to think about.

Actually, the guy in this last draft who fits your requirement list the best may be X.Henry, though Derek raised the point predraft that he may have trouble guarding s.g.'s. Offensively he is very versatile.

I'm at the same place I was before the draft. I'm not worried about finding a piece to fit between Jrue and Iguodala, my focus is still on finding a player capable of being the focal point of an offense. As such, I'm grading Turner on whether I think he can become that, not on whether he's an ideal fit on the current roster. For some reason, since the end of last season to now, our focus has shifted more to his current fit. As we get closer to the season, the distant future becomes less relevant, and the immediate future more of a concern.

I still believe it's easier to build around an Evan Turner offensively than it is to build around either Jrue Holiday or Andre Iguodala, and I'm not going to scour the earth to find an Anthony Morrow to build around a flawed player in the half-court like Andre Iguodala to squeak out 41 wins and a first round playoff exit.

I also believe Jrue is a far more versatile (but not dominant in any single way) offensive player who's built to play around Evan Turner, and the two will make a great pairing.

The question, to me, is based around whether Andre Iguodala can become a respectable catch and shoot player, and not making Turner become a guy you run off screens and setup in the corner.

You can see both at one time though. I don't think bringing him off the bench will give you an answer of whether he can carry the team offensively. If he gets the minutes we all want, then a lot of them will be spent with Jrue and AI9.

I didn't say you couldn't see both, nor that I want him to come off the bench (or expect him to, I said yesterday I'd be surprised if he wasn't the opening day starter). I just mean my main concern isn't making him an off the ball player to fit next to jrue and iguodala but to see if he can be the centerpiece of an offense.

Oh alright, I misread it. So he is simply the top priority to you. So if he can't play off the ball or isn't showing much progress there, would you let him run the point the whole game? Basically let him run the Ohio State offense.

I agree in that I'd rather have someone like Turner giving me 20+ pts leading the offense than have a pure shooter like Morrow who is more of a 15ppg role player. I want the impact player and then will shuffle the other pieces.

Turner and Jrue are (hopefully) the long term future. It remains to be seen whether Iguodala will fit in long term, or whether his large salary slot is better utilized on a frontcourt asset. But this question won't be answered this season.

Why couldn't Morrow be a starter? He's got the size, the stroke, he's efficient in his scoring. He's a low turnover guy. Doesn't need the ball in his hands a lot. He's only 24. He's athletic. I don't know- a Morrow, Lou, and Iguodala rotation at the 2-spot brings ALOT of versatility to the back court.

Downside to the trade- neither he nor Favors is a solution to our number 1 scoring option IMO.

I second all of the Ray Allen comments. In his prime he was the perfect SG. Perfect shot, good size, good handle, good enough defender, scorers mentality, efficient.

He is the only player in NBA history from age 24-31 to average 23 ppg and hit at least two 3's per game.

From age 24-31 he cumulative stat line was:
23.3/4.7 shooting 45%/40%/90% with ts% and eFG% in the 55% range.

He is the only "shooter" to ever put up those kind of consistent all-around numbers throughout his prime. Reggie Miller came close, and gets bonus points for his clutchness and intensity... but Allen gets the nod IMO.

BTW, here is a comparison of Reggie and Ray ray through age 31. Both historic numbers- with Reggie more efficient with his added lay-ups off of cuts and Ray a bit higher in assists and scoring (taking more 3's and laying more minutes/game.) Also Reggie has a ton more DWind, but I'm not sure why :)

Problem with Redick is that he went to Duke and I'm predisposed to think less of Duke players in the NBA until proven otherwise. He had a very nice season last year, and the Magic finally gave him minutes, but I want to see it carry over into this year.

I'm actually a big fan of Redick. Eventually, Orlando is going to get bit in the ass for matching all these offer sheets for their restricted free agents. I think Redick steps in as the starter at SG down there when Carter's done, though.

Eric Gordon and O.J. Mayo are my picks to put between Holiday and Igoudala. Both have a chance to become a focal point on offense without being untouchable (read Durant aka the perfect fit) in a trade.

Saying Nocioni can shoot is just a complete misnomer. He's been above average from three, essentially pitiful from everywhere else on the floor. Especially long twos, which make up about 20% of his shots (51/164 from 16-23 feet over the past two seasons, 30.9%).

Last year, he shot 49.6% on shots at the rim. Which is just beyond pitiful.

Toughness comes at a steep price, I guess. 20 minutes a game, what a joke.

Again, how is he the perfect complement fro Jrue? Do you envision Jrue spending his career guarding SG's? Wouldn't that be an utter waste of his talent? or do you think Curry can guard SG's?

Jrue could be a great pure PG on both ends of the floor. he should be playing next to a great shooter who can defend SG's, not a guy smaller than him. It would be like pairing Gary Payton or Billups with AI.

It would be like pairing Gary Payton up with a guy Billups' height who was deadly from the outside, could handle the ball, makes plays for teammates, grabs a ton of rebounds for his position and plays the passing lanes.

And like I said before, I'd have Curry guarding the worst perimeter player. If you're playing Miami, Curry guards Chalmers and Jrue guards Wade. If you're playing OKC, Curry guards Thabo and Jrue guards Westbrook. If you're playing Boston, Jrue guards Rondo, Curry guards Allen.

There would be some mismatches, obviously, but having two perimeter defenders like Holiday and Iguodala allows you to sacrifice some D for O in the third perimeter spot. Especially if you don't have a complete defensive zero at center, like Hawes.

I'd do the trade in a nanosecond, but i don't think GSW will be even remotely interested. Curry would solve the focal point on offense issue, Biedrins would solve the rebounding issue... I don't see how this makes sense for GSW though

Curry is a lousy defender. Not average, not passable- but lousy. Like Lou Williams, he can only cover PG's... and not well.

So you are forcing Jrue to only cover SG's (and Iguodala to only cover SF's.) So you are losing Jrues greatest strength. Instead of starting a potentially elite defender of PG's you now have a poor defender at PG and Jrue as an undersized defender at SG.

I don't see why Jrue needs to guard the opposing SG if he is paired with a smaller player at SG. In todays NBA the PGs are usually the better players of the two guards on the majority of the teams anyway....

His defensive numbers aren't that bad, and I don't think you'd exclusively use him on opposing PGs. You'd use him on the worst perimeter player on the opposing team every night, with Iguodala and Jrue taking the two best.

Defensively, I'd take Curry and Biedrins over Turner and Hawes without thinking twice.

Out of curiosity, who would Jrue and who would Curry be guarding on the current 10 top NBA teams? Do you really envision Curry covering the "worst backcourt player" if that guy has 4" and 40 pounds on Curry? I guess it depends on how passive that guy is.

Turner and the situation he is getting into in his rookie season reminds me more and more to James Harden from last year. I expect very similar numbers from Turner this year (both in playing time and actual stats). I even think they both have very similar upside. Would anyone trade Turner for Harden or do all of you think Turner will be better?

“He’s probably shocked because he thought I was so bad as a basketball player,” said a smiling Kapono. “Obviously, he wasn’t expecting much. I guess I’ll take that as a compliment. Thank you, coach Collins.”

Iguodala participated in a full-court session for the first time in camp. Nocioni and Battie again sat out during the contact portion.

I'm wondering if you saw much of the camp and preseason last year and whether Kapono looks better now. My general impression was that he performed well offensively in last season's camp/preseason, but then didn't make shots once the regular season started and then fell out of the rotation.

Kapono was actually shooting just under 40 percent from 3-point land when Jordan benched him two months into the season. He's been good at finding open spots in the offense and camp, and the other team hasn't been good at being aware of where he is on the floor.

He doesn't stand out on "D." But he knocked down two 3-pointers from the right elbow extended with a smooth, confident shooting stroke. After the scrimmage, he hit five straight 3s from the right baseline and barely touched the net on any of them.

Brackins is a well spoken kid and seems to have his head on straight. Given he was in a bad situation at ISU, I think he has a chance to surprise people- especially if he can get his strength up.

Interesting that he is the same age as Speights (23), so older than Hawes/Turner/Young(22) and Holiday(20.) I could see him getting some minutes since Hawes/Speights/Brand are unlikely to give you 82 games.

"On another note, it is really eye-opening how good Jrue Holiday appears to be. He plays at a pace that just keeps defenders confused, with a great combination of quickness and speed. When he drives to the hole, he is strong enough to finish in traffic and after contact and when he does pass, he usually makes the right decision. He is really, really good."

Rudy Gay would be a nice fit between jrue and iguodala. Great range albeit inconsistent right now, great athlete, pure stroke, good ft shooter. Defense is not his strong suit but he hasvall the tools to succeed their. Is more of a sf than sg but could easily play 35 min a night there. I'm interested in the league as well if there's any spots.